Mitsubishi's HC6000 is a classic example of ‘If it ain't broke, don’t fix it’ product design: at first glance, it appears identical to the HC5000 model it replaces.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing: as we commented when testing the '5000 back in November 2007, Mitsubishi deserves great credit for making such efforts to reduce the size and noise of its projectors, and the HC6000 is similarly easy to live with. It’s claimed to emit only 19dB of noise, and it's certainly one of the quietest projectors we’ve tried. That makes quite a difference with subtler movies.

As before, the Mitsubishi is easy to install, thanks to a short throw lens and fully motorised adjustments for zoom, focus and lens shift. That, coupled to easily adjustable supporting feet, a backlit remote and clear on-screen graphics, makes it simple to get up and running.

Most of the key specs are unchanged, too. It’s a Full HD projector with 1920 x 1080 resolution, and sports Reon-VX HQV video processing (as found in many a high-end DVD player) for deinterlacing and video scaling. Even the claimed brightness output is the same as before, at a respectable 1000 ANSI Lumens.

New LCD panel
So what's changed? The new Mitsubishi includes the latest generation of ‘C2FINE’ LCD panel, claimed to produce more even hues with better, more consistent colours than before.

Mitsubishi claims a 15,000:1 contrast ratio for the HC6000, as against 10,000:1 for the older model. Given that we felt black levels were the biggest weakness of the HC5000, that bodes well.

Happily, the practice lives up to the paper promise. The HC6000 digs deeper into low-light scenes, unearthing details its forebear tended to struggle with. It’ll capture the murky middle sequences of The Kingdom well, and manages to make the complex finale to The Bourne Ultimatum easy to follow (which is quite some achievement).

Best with prgressive input
Motion is handled well, too, although the HC6000’s deinterlacing can introduce some jagged edges with fast motion. We found feeding in a progressive-scan 576p DVD signal, leaving the projector’s powerful scaling to do the rest, is preferable.

Of course, switch to high-def 1080p signals from Blu-ray, and the HC6000 looks its best: its added contrast helps to make discs like The Day After Tomorrow really snap out from the screen.

So why no five-star verdict? Only one issue, in truth: the presence tough price-competition, offering as much for even less money.